Each year UNSW Medicine celebrates the diverse achievements of staff through the Dean’s Awards.
CHeBA's Co-Directors, Professor Henry Brodaty and Professor Perminder Sachdev, have jointly been awarded the 2014 UNSW Medicine Dean's Award for Outstanding Achievement. This is the highest award made by UNSW Medicine in recognition of outstanding contribution and significant achievements, usually over a prolonged period of time, in the areas of education, research and community activity. It recognises achievements of the highest standard that give great credit to the individual and to the Faculty.
"The award to Perminder Sachdev and I is testimony to a wonderful, dedicated and hard-working team striving to achieve the goal of healthy brains for all of us as we age," said Professor Brodaty.
Professor Brodaty and Professor Sachdev founded the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) in 2012, which has since established itself firmly as a pre-eminent centre in brain ageing research. Recent research breakthroughs have included the development of new diagnostic criteria for Vascular Cognitive Disorders, findings that indicate one in four elderly people with Mild Cognitive Impairment naturally revert to normal cognition, and world-first findings about the potential of white matter brain imaging measures as a cheaper and less invasive technique for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Having experienced and talented leadership has been essential to the success of CHeBA, particularly in establishing our presence within UNSW and the community,” said CHeBA’s Marketing & Communications Officer Heidi Mitchell.
In addition to founding and leading CHeBA, both Professors have a long and distinguished history of academic and professional contribution in the fields of mental health, neuropsychiatry, geriatrics and health care policy.
Professor Sachdev is Clinical Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the Prince of Wales Hospital. He occupied the first chair of Neuropsychiatry in Australia, with ground-breaking research across a number of fields. He played a leading role in the development of higher training in neuropsychiatry through his leadership of the International Neuropsychiatric Association, and the Neuropsychiatry Section of the RANZCP. Recently, he has contributed to the diagnosis of dementia as the only Australian member of the Neurocognitive Disorders Workgroup for the DSM-5.
As well as co-directing CHeBA, Professor Brodaty is the Director of the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre (Assessment and Better Care) as well as the Montefiore Chair of Healthy Brain Ageing. He founded and continues to head the Memory Disorders Clinic at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Additionally, Professor Brodaty was a founding member of a number of leading organisations, including Alzheimer’s Disease International, Alzheimer’s Australia (NSW) and the council of the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology.
Professor Brodaty and Professor Sachdev were presented the award by Professor Peter Smith, Dean, UNSW Medicine at ceremony held on 11 November 2014.
